Albenrezension

Though he was only there for a year, Machito recorded a lot of solid mambos for Columbia, and they're all collected here, along with a few light novelties that never should've made it out of the '50s. Tracks like "Holiday Mambo," "Carambola," and "Amalia los Invita" are infectious, energetic jams, the brassy orchestra following Machito's every move with precision and strength. Still, there aren't as many seminal recordings here as on a collection of late-'40s material like Mucho Macho. Of the novelty fare, the trad-pop vocal chorus on "Mambo a la Savoy" is downright putrid, though it's easily over-powered by the Afro-Cuban Orchestra on the choruses.